“Here are the numbers that are relevant: from about 1996, the number of pupils in public schools has declined by four percent, as a matter of demographics,” Cuomo said. “The cost of education has gone up 120 percent. The number of teachers has gone up 10 percent and the number of supervisors has gone up 34 percent. Thirty-four percent. How do you explain those numbers?”

“You bloated the front office. That’s what this is about. A bloated management, a bloated bureaucracy of supervisors,” he continued. “It’s not just about more money.”

“Better manage the system, and when you have a 34 percent increase in the number of supervisors, it means to me that you should look at the management bureaucracy – just like corporations,” he said. “When you see those kinds of numbers in the private sector, it’s a corporation that is losing market share, that has reduced dividends and it’s a corporation that’s gone bankrupt.”

So, I asked the governor, should voters approve these budgets?

“I don’t know the numbers, I don’t know the facts and people should inform themselves about the facts,” he said. “My suggestion would be, before people go and vote, they ask. They ask these questions: how many supervisors? How much are they paid? How many teachers? Can we shrink the bureaucracy? Can we be more efficient can we be more effective? Because we don’t have the rate of increase, the money, to continue to fund the way we have been.”

About Capitol Confidential

Capitol Confidential gathers the best coverage of New York politics and puts it all together. Each section - Capitol, The State Worker, New York on the Potomac, and Voices - represents a unique facet of the political scene. The Capitol section features coverage from the Times Union Capitol bureau. The State Worker is dedicated to state worker issues. New York on the Potomac offers news of interest to New Yorkers from Washington. And Voices features the best of everything else, pointing you to columnists and bloggers from across the Web.